


Locked Up

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Gunnerkrigg Court
Genre: Folklore, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene, Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-16 07:56:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13049796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Annie has an idea to bring those closest to her together





	Locked Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [republic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/republic/gifts).



> An alternate scene, replacing [this](http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1482) moment. What if Kat _was_ working in the lab, instead of with Paz?

"You will not believe what we just saw!" Annie said, bursting into Kat's workshop. "They grow children's bodies in vats! That's where the animals and fai- what is that?"

Annie came to an abrupt halt as she saw what Kat was working on. She was laying on her back in her coveralls, and above her hovered an ungainly creation that struck Annie as vaguely familiar. It bathed her friend in a bright purple glow that was also familiar.

Kat pushed on something and slid out from underneath the machine. It gently settled back to the floor behind her. "This is my anti-grav ship!" Kat declared. "Remember, I used it to grab you from the riverbank, the first time you saw Jeanne?"

"Oh, that's right!" the memory flooded back to Annie.

“The Court said it was supposed to be dismantled, but my dad snuck it out for me.” Kat said with a grin.

Annie frowned. "Why are you working on it now? I thought you were focused on Robot?"

"I was thinking about Jeanne," Kat admitted. "I thought we could use this to get a closer look at her."

"That's brilliant!" Annie declared with a laugh.

Somewhere, at the edge of her hearing, Annie's laugh gained an echo. Pausing, Annie allowed her senses to spread as she wondered what coyote wanted. She had just left him, after all.

 _And why did you not bring her to see me? This wonderful friend you always speak of!_ the echo repeated.

"That's right!" Annie exclaimed. "This still works, right, Kat?" she asked.

"Yeah, basically," Kat said, dusting off her hands. "I mean, the gyro isn't as stable as I'd like it, and it has a little trouble hovering longer than twenty minutes. I whipped it up in a hurry, you know..."

"But will it get us over the ravine and back?" Annie demanded.

"Well sure," Kat shrugged. "That's easy."

"Good," Annie quickly tied her hair back again. "Get in."

 

oOo

As the hovercraft skimmed away on their screens, the first watcher turned to the second. "Should we-"

"They believe she is the one. She might be the only one who can help us." The second said.

"Obscuring the court's view now," the first said, tapping several buttons. A moment later, the screen showed a clear skyline.

 

oOo

"Where should I park?" Kat asked, yelling over the noise of the anti-grav engine.

"Near that tree!" Annie pointed at a tree that stood a little higher than the surrounding canopy. "Coyote often hangs out near it!"

"And what if he isn't there?" Kat asked.

"Believe me, if you land a piece of court technology in the forest, Ysengrin will be on it in five minutes," Annie said. "He's touchy about that."

Shrugging, Kat did as suggested and landed her anti-grav craft in the closest clearing to the tree. There was a small cliff face and a pond nearby, and she thought it was a very picturesque place. Having grown up in the court, Kat's nature excursions were limited to the forests within the buildings, like the one their class had visited, or the cherry tree. Natural woods were somehow prettier.

No sooner had Kat turned off the engines than Annie was proven right. A huge tree with a wolf head came bursting out of the treeline. Kat was strangely reminded of Annie's friend Muut, for a moment, before shaking the mental image away. "What is the meaning of this!" the wolf-tree demanded.

"Is that-"

"That's Ysengrin," Annie confirmed, hopping out of the anti-grav ship. "Ysengrin, this is my friend Kat, who I've told you about," she said to the wolf-tree. "Please tell coyote that she is here."

"You brought court technology into the forest!" Ysengrin growled, slavering as he approached.

Annie's hair lit up with a touch of fire. "As the forest Medium, I have granted welcome to Katerina Donlan, and any equipment that she requires," Annie said heatedly. "Now please tell coyote that we are here."

"Fire Head Girl!" Coyote bellowed, springing out of the forest. He slammed to a stop beside Annie, but craned his neck towards Kat. "Is this her?"

"Kat, Coyote," Annie said simply. “Coyote, don’t tell her your goose story.”

“Goose?” Kat perked up.

“Kat actually likes geese,” Annie said sharply, before Coyote could regale her with his tale of being a dead bird. “She will not like that story.”

“You’re no fun,” Coyote pouted.

“I would like to hear a different story,” Kat said diplomatically, sitting down on the large rock that Annie often used.

Under Annie’s watchful eye, Coyote settled down on his belly beside Kat, preening under her attention. “I shall tell you the story of how I released the buffalo for man!” he declared.

“In the beginning, a giant had all of the buffalo, and he kept them sealed in a paddock in a cave. Only he and his son could see the buffalo, and only they could eat the meat. He refused to share with the humans who lived near him.” Coyote explained.

“How did you know that the giant had all of the buffalo if no one was allowed to see them?” Kat asked.

“Hah! You are clever, Girl Who Flies!” Coyote laughed. “The humans living near the giant could hear the buffalo in their cave. And the giant bragged as he cooked his buffalo meat on his campfire.”

Seeing that Coyote was behaving, for now, Annie returned to where Ysengrin was frowning over Kat’s hovercraft. Still keeping a watchful eye on Coyote, she began to quietly distract the other being.

“The giant refused many times to share his buffalo with the humans or the animals near him. So I was determined to change that,” Coyote declared. “I saw that the giant’s son did not have a pet, and every child must have a pet. So I transformed myself into a little dog puppy.”

Annie snorted at that, drawing Kat and Coyote’s attention back to her. “What?” Kat asked.

“Coyote never tells the full story. Ask him how well he transformed himself into that puppy,” Annie teased.

Perplexed, Kat turned back to the disgruntled looking Coyote. “How well did you transform?” she asked dutifully.

“I was a perfect mimic of a dog puppy,” Coyote complained, “but for my nose and whiskers. BUT! It was good enough to fool the son of the giant! He found me beside a stream and immediately decided I should be his pet. He took me home to his father and begged to keep me!”

“The giant was suspicious, but his son begged, and I was a very good puppy, so finally the giant relented. BUT! He refused to allow me into the house. His son had to take me to the buffalo paddock and leave me there, so I could not cause any problems inside the giant’s house.”

“Of course,” Coyote reared up proudly, “that is exactly where I wanted to be! So late that night, when the giant and his son were sleeping, I opened the latch on the paddock and began to bark and chase the buffalo. The buffalo were so scared at hearing a dog bark for the first time that they stampeeded. They stampeeded right through the large stone blocking the cave entrance, and right past the giant’s house.”

“The giant work up with a roar, and chased after his herd, but it was too late. I chased the buffalo and they stampeeded all the way to the plains around the village. From then on, the humans and animals had fresh buffalo meat whenever they wanted, and the giant’s son was never allowed a pet again.”

“Wow!” Kat looked ready to applaud. “That was some story!”

“And all true!” Coyote declared proudly. “And the moral is that neither buffalo, nor puppies should be locked up in caves! What do you think of that!”

“I think it is time for them to get this… _machine_ out of the forest,” Ysengrin growled, stomping towards the duo.

Annie trailed behind. “We do need to get back before the Court realizes that we’re missing, or that we used your hovercraft again,” she said gently.

“Oh, right!” Kat slapped her forehead. We really do have to fly!”

“Come back and visit any time, Girl Who Flies!” Coyote said, winding around Kat’s legs like a kitten. “You too, Fire Head Girl!”

As they soared back towards the Court, Annie wondered about Coyote's final words. She had learned that he rarely said anything without reason, even his seemingly pointless stories.

 _The moral is that neither buffalo, nor puppies should be locked up in caves!_ Annie wondered if Coyote felt that rabbits and faeries shouldn't be locked up in human bodies in the Court either. Or perhaps it was a reference to the fact that Kat was not supposed to visit the forest? Or maybe the limitations the Court had tried to put on Annie herself when she refused to bow to their rules?

Annie shook her head and decided to just enjoy the flight back to Kat's workshop. She would figure out Coyote's cryptic moral later. For now, they had a new dorm to move into, and the robot project to work on, and Jeanne to study, and her Medium duties, not to mention classes! Still, as they slipped from the lab back to the dorm, Annie couldn't shake the feeling that she had just willingly locked herself back up.


End file.
